Local channels anywhere

ABSTRACT

A mobile viewing method includes accessing location information indicative of a current location of a mobile device associated with a home market. A current market corresponding to the current location of the mobile device is identified. If the current market differs from the home market, the mobile device is granted access to a retransmission of at least one local channel of the current market. The location information may include GPS information indicative of GPS coordinates of the mobile device. The mobile device may include a mobile viewing application that displays a channel guide indicating local channels available in the current market and national channels. The mobile viewing application may include a summary of the current market and the summary may include weather, news headline, and local advertisement information.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Disclosure

Disclosed subject matter is in the field of multimedia delivery servicesand, more particularly, mobile access to multimedia content on a mobiledevice.

2. Description of the Related Art

Multimedia service providers that deliver content via cable, satellite,and IP access networks typically provide content associated with localchannels and content associated with other channels, which may bereferred to herein as national channels. Local channels includeretransmissions of locally broadcasted channels. Service providers mayalso offer a subscriber wireless access to content via the subscriber'smobile device. It may, however, be difficult to reconcile mobile deviceaccess and retransmitted local channel content when the subscribertravels to a location outside of the subscriber's home market.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a multimedia delivery platform;

FIG. 2 illustrates a service provider in communication with a mobiledevice;

FIG. 3 illustrates operation of a mobile viewing application;

FIG. 4 illustrates a channel guide interface of a mobile viewingapplication; and

FIG. 5 illustrates a local channel comparison interface.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Mobile access to content provided to a subscriber by a multimediaservice provider may include mobile viewing features, applications, andmethods performed by a server operated by a service provider andfeatures, applications, and methods performed by a mobile device of asubscriber. In at least one embodiment, the mobile viewing server mayperform a method that includes receiving, obtaining, or otherwiseaccessing location information indicative of a current location of thesubscriber's mobile device and identifying a current marketcorresponding to the mobile device's current location. If the currentmarket differs from a home market, which is the market associated withthe subscriber's account, the mobile device is granted access to aretransmission of a local channel of the current market.

Granting the mobile device access to the retransmission of the localchannel may occur in response to receiving a request for localprogramming from a mobile viewing application installed on the mobiledevice. The location information may include, GPS information indicativeof GPS coordinates of the mobile device, cellular network informationindicative of a location of a cellular base station in proximity to themobile device, or other suitable navigation information.

Granting the mobile device access to the retransmission of a localchannel may include wirelessly streaming local channel content to themobile device. The mobile viewing server may include or communicate witha web-accessible streaming server to stream the local channel contentand the mobile viewing application may access the streaming server via awireless Internet connection. The wireless connection may be a WiFiconnection or a 3G, 4G, or subsequent generation of a cellularconnection.

In at least one embodiment, the mobile viewing server may provide themobile viewing application with available channel information including,as an example, an available channel menu or listing. The availablechannel menu may distinguish local channels from other channels, forexample, by including a locality indicator adjacent to available localchannels or by indicating local channels separately from other channels.

The mobile viewing server may support or provide additional optionalfeatures in connection with the mobile viewing application. For example,the mobile viewing server may provide current market summaryinformation, including as non-limiting examples, a weather summaryindicative of a weather forecast for the current market, a headlinesummary indicative of a news story associated with the current market,and a local advertisement advertising a business or service provided inthe current market. The mobile viewing application may display any oneor more of the current market summary information to the subscriber. Asanother example of an optional feature, the mobile viewing applicationmay include a user-selectable option to view a local differences windowand the mobile viewing server may respond to user selection of the localdifferences option by providing the mobile viewing application withinformation indicative of differences between local channel contentaccessible in the subscriber's home market and local content accessiblein the current market.

In addition to methods performed by a mobile viewing server, disclosedsubject matter encompasses the mobile viewing server itself as well asthe computer executable instructions that, when executed by theprocessor, cause the mobile viewing server to perform disclosed methods.Disclosed subject matter also encompasses methods performed by themobile device and computer executable instructions of the mobile viewingapplication, which when executed by the mobile device, cause the mobileviewing device to perform the applicable methods.

In the following description, details are set forth by way of example tofacilitate discussion of the disclosed subject matter. It should beapparent to a person of ordinary skill in the field, however, that thedisclosed embodiments are exemplary and not exhaustive of all possibleembodiments.

Throughout this disclosure, a hyphenated form of a reference numeralrefers to a specific instance of an element and the un-hyphenated formof the reference numeral refers to the element generically orcollectively. Thus, for example, widget 12-1 refers to an instance of awidget class, which may be referred to collectively as widgets 12 andany one of which may be referred to generically as a widget 12.

Turning now to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates a multimedia deliverynetwork 100 enabling a multimedia service provider to provide, to itssubscribers, a multimedia delivery service that includes a mobileviewing service with a local channels anywhere feature. The elements ofmultimedia delivery network 100 depicted in FIG. 1 are described toprovide context for the mobile viewing application and service describedin the subsequent figures The multimedia delivery network 100illustrated in FIG. 1 represents a tiered delivery network including afirst tier that includes a super headend office 110 and a second tierthat includes multiple local headend offices including a first localheadend office 120-1 and a second local headend office 120-2 depicted inFIG. 1.

In at least one embodiment, super headend office 110 includesacquisition resources for acquiring content distributed nationally andreferred to herein as national content. National content includes, as anexample, content made available to subscribers in more than one of thelocal headend offices 120. The acquisition resources of the superheadend office 110 illustrated in FIG. 1 include, as non-limitingexamples, a dish antenna 104 to acquire content transmitted by acommunication satellite 107 and a headend server 106 to acquire contentdistributed from a content provider 109 via a broadband network 111.Although FIG. 1 illustrates a single dish antenna 104 and a singleheadend server 106, other embodiments may include more or differentacquisition resources than those shown in FIG. 1.

In the tiered embodiment of multimedia delivery network 100 illustratedin FIG. 1, super headend office 110 processes the content received fromits acquisition resources and provides a national content feed 117 toeach of its local headend offices 120 through a backbone network 115.Backbone network 115 may be or may include a private network operatedand maintained by the service provider of multimedia delivery network100. Backbone network 115 may be firewall insulated from public networksincluding the Internet. Backbone network 115 may include a fiber opticnetwork or another suitable media for high-bandwidth transmission ofmultimedia content from super headend office 110 to a number of localheadend offices 120. In some embodiments, multimedia delivery network100 includes a local headend office 120 in each of a predeterminednumber of markets. A market may encompass a city and a defined regionsurrounding the city. For purposes of this disclosure, the local headendoffices 120 of multimedia delivery network 100 and the markets servicedby multimedia delivery network 100 correspond one-to-one. In otherembodiments, however, a market may include multiple headend offices anda headend office may service multiple markets.

In the multimedia delivery network 100 of FIG. 1, each local headendoffice 120 receives the national content feed 117 from super headendoffice 110. In addition, each local headend office 120 includes localacquisition resources including a local acquisition server 126 and oneor more dish antennas 123 for receiving local channels 122 broadcasttransmitted from one or more corresponding radio towers 124. Localheadend office 120 provides a subscriber feed 131 to customer premises150 via access network 140. The subscriber feed 131 illustrated in FIG.1 includes the national feed 117 and retransmitted local channels 125.Subscriber feed 131 may also include locally produced content 133 suchas various public service and community access channels from localserver 126. Locally produced content 133 may also include localadvertising, for locally provided goods or services, which may beinserted into national feed 117, retransmitted local channels 125, orboth.

The access network 140 illustrated in FIG. 1 may encompass variousimplementations including, as non-limiting examples, coaxial cableaccess networks, digital subscriber line and other twisted copper pairaccess networks, fiber optic access networks, as well as wireless accessnetworks including satellite television access networks.

FIG. 1 illustrates that the subscriber feeds 131 differ for each localheadend office 120. As an example, subscriber feed 131-1 generated bylocal headend office 120-1 differs from subscriber feed 131-2 generatedby local headend office 120-2. In some embodiments, the primarydifference between subscriber feed 131-1 and subscriber feed 131-2 isthe difference between retransmitted local channels 125-1 andretransmitted local channels 125-2. Retransmitted local channels 125-1represent signals transmitted by corresponding radio towers 124-1located in market 130-1 while retransmitted local channels 125-2represent signals transmitted by corresponding radio towers 124-2located in market 130-2. Similarly, any local advertising inserted intothe subscriber feed 131 provided to customer premises 150 may vary witheach local headend office 120.

A service provider of multimedia delivery network 100 may elect to offerits subscribers access to subscriber feed 131 from mobile devices 170including, as non-limiting examples, smart phones and tablet devices,over a wireless network 160 including, as examples, a 3G, 4G, orsubsequent generation of mobile telephone network or a wireless fidelity(WiFi) network. Mobile devices are inherently capable of moving from onemarket to another, e.g., moving from market 130-1 to market 130-2. Whena mobile device 170 moves from a first market 130-1 to a second market130-2, the service provider may determine which market to use withrespect to retransmitted local channels 125 in the subscriber feed 131.The inclusion of local content as part of a feed provided to mobiledevices may be influenced by regulatory or contractual limitations. Forexample, the provider of multimedia delivery network 100 may be legallyor contractually prohibited from retransmitting a locally broadcastsignal transmitted by a first radio transmitter 124-1 in any market 130other than the first market 130-1 in which the radio transmitter 124-1is located.

Turning now to FIG. 2, elements of a service provider 200 providing amobile viewing service to a mobile device 201 are illustrated. Theservice provider 200 illustrated in FIG. 2 encompasses the multimediadelivery network 100 of FIG. 1 as well as a mobile viewing server 220.The mobile viewing server 220 illustrated in FIG. 2 includes a processor232, computer readable memory or storage 234, and a network interface236. The storage 234 shown in FIG. 2 includes mobile viewing server code235. Mobile viewing server 220 is shown in FIG. 2 as having access tovarious databases including a subscriber identification database 222, amarket geography database 224, a subscriber services database 226, and alocal channel data database 228. FIG. 2 illustrates service provider 200communicating with mobile device 201 through a communication path thatincludes the backbone network 115 of FIG. 1, a wireless network 230, andone or more gateways 231. Wireless network 230 may employ any of varioussuitable cellular technologies including, without limitation, 3G, 4G,and subsequent technologies. In other embodiments, wireless network 230may include an IEEE 802.11 compliant network (Wi-Fi) or another suitablewireless local area network.

The mobile device 201 illustrated in FIG. 2 includes a processor 202 andcomputer readable storage 204. The storage 204 illustrated in FIG. 2includes computer executable program instructions for a mobile viewingapplication 250. The mobile viewing application 250 of FIG. 2 includes astream player 251. Stream player 251 represents an application fordriving a display screen with streaming multimedia content received fromservice provider 200. Storage 204 illustrated in FIG. 2 also includesidentification information 252. Identification information 252 mayinclude information identifying a primary user of mobile device 201, anaccount number of the primary user, e.g., the primary user's accountnumber with service provider 200, or an identification of mobile device201 itself. In the latter embodiment, identification information mayencompass a globally unique identifier of mobile device 201 including,but not limited to, a subscriber identification module (SIM) card numberof mobile device 201 or a media access control (MAC) address of themobile device 201.

The mobile device 201 illustrated in FIG. 2 is shown further including aradio frequency component 206, which may include a radio frequencytransmitter, a radio frequency receiver, and corresponding communicationlogic. Mobile device 201 further includes a navigation element 208,which may include special-purpose or dedicated hardware and software ora combination thereof designed to interact with a specificallyidentified device or methodology for determining one's geographiclocation on earth. Navigation element 208 may include, as one example,global positioning system (GPS) hardware and software. Mobile device 201further includes a display adapter 210 for interacting with the displaydevice, an audio adapter 212 configured for interfacing with a speakeror other suitable device, and a camera 214. Mobile device 201 may beimplemented in a form factor compatible with a smart phone in someembodiments, in other embodiments, mobile device 201 may represent atablet computing device, a laptop computer, or another suitablewireless-capable computing device.

Referring now to FIG. 3, operation of a mobile viewing feature 300including a local anywhere feature is illustrated. Mobile viewingfeature 300 encompasses operations performed by mobile device 201executing mobile viewing application 250, represented as MVA in FIG. 3as well as operations performed by mobile viewing server 220 executingmobile access service code 235, represented as MAS in FIG. 3.

In the embodiment of mobile viewing feature 300 illustrated in FIG. 3, amobile viewing application transmits (operation 302) a request to themobile viewing server. The mobile viewing application 250 may representa dedicated application residing on the mobile device 201. In otherembodiments, the mobile viewing application 250 may represent ageneral-purpose browser processing executable code of a mobile viewingwebpage maintained by the service provider 200. For the sake of clarityand brevity, the mobile viewing application 250 described herein isassumed to be implemented as a dedicated application executable on themobile device 201. In these embodiments, request 302 may be initiatedwhen the user of mobile device 201 opens or otherwise executes mobileviewing application 250. The request 302 is transmitted to the mobileviewing server 220 which responds with a login prompt (operation 304)that is returned to mobile viewing application 250. Mobile viewingapplication 250 may then respond to login prompt 304 by returning userspecified authentication information 306, which may include a user IDand password or another form of information suitable for authenticatingthe user of the mobile device as the authorized user.

The mobile viewing server responds to receiving the login information inoperation 306 by accessing subscriber identification database 222 inoperation 310 to retrieve information specific to the subscriber forauthentication against the information provided by the user. Thesubscriber may, in some embodiments, associate the mobile device 201with a particular subscriber identification and thereby simplify thelogin process. In these embodiments, the request 302 may include anidentifier of mobile device 201, a user of mobile device 201, or aservice provider account associated with mobile device 201 after whichthe user may need only enter a password or other form of authenticationinformation. Following the retrieval of subscriber information by mobileviewing server 220 at operation 310, subscriber identification database222 provides (operation 312) information corresponding to the subscriberand returns this information to mobile viewing server, enabling themobile viewing server to authenticate the user. Mobile viewing feature300 includes a sequence, not depicted in FIG. 3, for re-prompting theuser or denying access to the user if the user is unable to provideauthentication information.

Having authenticated the user, the mobile viewing server may thenprovide the mobile viewing application with a main menu at operation320. The main menu provided to the mobile viewing application mayinclude menu options such as configuration settings, content selectionoptions, channel guide options, and other features. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 3, the mobile viewing application user selects achannel guide option at operation 322 from the main menu interface.

In at least one embodiment, the mobile viewing application generates achannel guide menu or interface wherein the channel guide interfaceincludes at least two sections, a national channel section and a localchannels section, as further described below with respect to FIG. 4. Thenational channel section of the channel guide interface includes allchannels of national distribution provided to the subscriber by provider201. The local channels section, in at least one embodiment, includeslocal channels corresponding to the market in which the user iscurrently located. Thus, if a user travels to a different market, theuser may, nevertheless, open the mobile viewing application on theuser's phone and gain access to the local channels in the user's currentlocation.

The mobile viewing application of FIG. 3 includes a local channeldetermination process by accessing a markets database at operation 330.The markets database includes information that identifies a market ofthe service provider based on navigation information or geographicinformation provided by mobile viewing application 250. The mobileviewing application may periodically provide or record navigationinformation indicative of the user's current location. The locationinformation may be pushed out to the mobile viewing server periodicallyor from time to time or polled from time to time by mobile viewingserver 220. In either case, the mobile viewing server obtains locationinformation indicative of a current location of the mobile device.Depending upon the navigation resources available to the mobile device,the location information used by the mobile viewing server to query themarkets database may include global position system coordinates oranother suitable form of navigation information. For mobile devices thatlack global position system functionality, the mobile viewing server mayestimate the location of mobile device 201 based on the mobile device'sproximity to a cellular base station or to a wireless access point.

In the operation 330 illustrated in FIG. 3, the mobile viewing serverqueries the markets database based on the location information andreceives or accesses (operation 340) market information. In at leastsome embodiments, the market information identifies one of a finite setof markets covered by the service provider in which the subscriber islocated.

After mobile viewing server 220 receives information identifying thecurrent market where the mobile device resides, the illustrated exampleof method 300 queries (operation 360) a local channel database toretrieve (operation 370) information indicating the local channelsassociated with the service provider market in which the mobile deviceis currently located.

The mobile viewing server, having received local channel information,may forward (operation 380) the local channel information to the mobileviewing application to enable the mobile viewing application to generatea channel guide that includes, in addition to national channels, asection that includes local channels corresponding to the user's currentlocation. In this manner, the mobile viewing application may generate amenu guide interface with a local channel section indicating channels inaccordance with the local channel information retrieved in operation 370as well as a national channel section including national channelsprovided according to the subscriber's service. For example, thenational channels section in the menu user guide generated by the mobiledevice may include specific premium channels to which the usersubscribes as well as generally available channels.

The mobile viewing application may then generate and display a channelguide to the mobile device user. If the user selects a local channellisted in the channel guide, the mobile viewing application provides(operation 390) the mobile viewing server with information indicative ofthe user's selection and the mobile viewing server forwards (operation392) the request to the local headend office. The local headend office,upon receiving the request may then grant access to (operation 394) orotherwise provide the requested local channel to the mobile viewingapplication. In this case, the local channel may be received or viewedby the mobile device user by forwarding or retransmitting the requestedcontent from the local headend office to the mobile viewing application.

As described in the preceding description of method 300, a mobileviewing application enables a user to access a familiar interfaceregardless of the user's location and have the interface reflectnational channels that the user can access anywhere in one section andlocal channels that are specific to the user's current location inanother region.

Recognizing that retransmission limitations on local headend operatorsprevent the unencumbered use of locally broadcast signals in aretransmission to a mobile device, the use of currently local channelsbeneficially enables a mobile user to gain access to local channelsregardless of location. In addition, access to local channels providesthe mobile device user with information that is relevant to the user'scurrent location. This information could include, as examples, localweather information, local news headlines, and local advertising. Byproviding local channels to visitor from other markets, the mobileviewing application beneficially expands the potential viewership oflocal channels and locally produced advertisement and content andthereby potentially increases the value of the local broadcasts andlocal advertising time.

Turning now to FIG. 4, an example mobile viewing channel guide 400 isillustrated. The mobile viewing channel guide 400 illustrated in FIG. 4includes a local channel list 430, an everywhere channel list 440, andan optional local summary 420. In addition, the mobile viewing guide 400illustrated in FIG. 4 optionally includes current location information402 which may be presented to the user as GPS information, or town andstate information, or in some other suitable format, and current marketinformation 404, which may indicate the service provider marketassociated with the user's current location. In some embodiments, thecurrent market corresponds to the local headend office that serves theuser's current location. Although the mobile viewing guide depicted inFIG. 4 includes various elements including current location information402 and current market information 404, other implementations may omitthis information or include additional other information as appropriate.

The local summary 420 of FIG. 4 may include various pieces ofinformation corresponding to the user's current location. Theillustrated mobile viewing channel guide 400 includes, in the localsummary 420, local headlines 421, local time and weather information422, and one or more local ads 423. In some embodiments, the localsummary information may be selectable in a manner that permits the userto expand or display the local summary items or to hide the localsummary items from display to increase the size of the other windows.Similarly, the local summary 420 may be implemented with user selectableconfiguration settings that enable the user to choose which pieces oflocal information to include in the local summary 420.

The local channel list 430 lists the retransmitted local channelsavailable to the user at the user's current location within the currentmarket. Thus, for example, local channel list 430 lists theretransmissions of broadcasted network signals received by the localheadend office associated with the user's current market. The localchannel list 430 may further include other channels provided by thelocal headend office including, for example, public service announcementchannels of the local city government, a local school board, or acommunity access channel.

The local channel list 430 illustrated in FIG. 4 includes an optionallocal comparison selection box 432. In some embodiments, the localcomparison selection box 432, when checked or otherwise indicated byuser selection, generates a local channel comparison described belowwith respect to FIG. 5. Mobile viewing channel guide 400 may furtherinclude an everywhere channel list section 440 indicating a list ofchannels available based upon the user's current subscription packageand independent of the user's current location. In some embodiments, thelist of local channels and national channels may be automaticallymodified in accordance with signal strength or bandwidth currentlyavailable to the mobile device. If for example, the subscribersubscribes to a high definition package and the mobile device is notcurrently receiving a broadband signal, the channel guide may omit highdefinition channels.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a local channel comparison interface 500 isillustrated. The illustrated local channel comparison provides, to theuser, a summary of differences between content the user would haveaccess to within the user's home market versus the content available tothe user at the user's current location. The local channel comparison500 illustrated in FIG. 5 includes for example, a first section 502indicating programs available at the user's home market that areunavailable to the user at the current location. For example, a locallyor regionally telecasted athletic contest available at the user's homemarkets but not available at the user's current location would beidentified. Conversely, programs available at the user's currentlocation that would not be available to the user at home are indicatedin a second window 504. The local channel comparison feature maybeneficially enable the user to determine quickly differences in contentassociated with the user's current location.

To the maximum extent allowed by law, the scope of the presentdisclosure is to be determined by the broadest permissibleinterpretation of the following claims and their equivalents, and shallnot be restricted or limited to the specific embodiments described inthe foregoing detailed description.

What is claimed is:
 1. A mobile content viewing method, comprising:accessing location information indicative of a current location of amobile device associated with a home market; identifying a currentmarket corresponding to the current location of the mobile device,wherein the current market differs from the home market; and grantingthe mobile device access to a retransmission of a local channel of thecurrent market.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein granting the mobiledevice access to the retransmission is responsive to identifying themobile device as a mobile device associated with a subscriber accountfor a multimedia delivery service provided by a multimedia serviceprovider.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprisesa device selected from: a smart phone and a tablet device.
 4. The methodof claim 1, wherein the location information comprises informationselected from: GPS information indicative of GPS coordinates of themobile device; and cellular network information indicative of a locationof a cellular base station in proximity to the mobile device.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein granting the mobile device access to aretransmission of a local channel comprises: streaming the local channelfrom a streaming server; and granting the mobile device access to astreaming retransmission of the local content.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein granting the mobile device access is responsive to receiving arequest from a mobile viewing application of the mobile device.
 7. Themethod of claim 6, further comprising: providing the mobile viewingapplication with channel information, including locality informationindicative of whether a channel is a local channel.
 8. The method ofclaim 7, further comprising: providing the mobile viewing applicationwith market summary information, wherein the market summary informationincludes: a weather summary indicative of a weather forecast for thecurrent market; a headline summary indicative of a news story associatedwith the current market; and a local advertisement advertising abusiness or service provided in the current market.
 9. The method ofclaim 8, further comprising: providing a local content summaryindicative of differences between local content of the home market andlocal content of the current market.
 10. A computer readable medium,including program instructions, executable by a processor, theinstructions, when executed by the processor, causing the processor toperform operations comprising: accessing location information indicativeof a current location of a mobile device associated with a home market;identifying a current market corresponding to the current location ofthe mobile device, wherein the current market differs from the homemarket; and granting the mobile device access to a retransmission of alocal channel of the current market.
 11. The computer readable medium ofclaim 10, wherein granting the mobile device access to theretransmission is responsive to identifying the mobile device as amobile device associated with a subscriber account for a multimediadelivery service provided by a multimedia service provider.
 12. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the location informationcomprises information selected from: GPS information indicative of GPScoordinates of the mobile device; and cellular network informationindicative of a location of a cellular base station in proximity to themobile device.
 13. The computer readable medium of claim 10, whereingranting the mobile device access to a retransmission of a local channelcomprises: streaming the local channel from a streaming server; andgranting the mobile device access to streaming retransmission of thelocal content.
 14. The computer readable medium of claim 10, whereingranting the mobile device access is responsive to receiving a requestfrom a mobile viewing application of the mobile device.
 15. The computerreadable medium of claim 14, wherein the operations include: providingthe mobile viewing application with channel information, includinglocality information indicative of whether a channel is a local channel.16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operationsinclude: providing the mobile viewing application with market summaryinformation, wherein the market summary information includes: a weathersummary indicative of a weather forecast for the current market; aheadline summary indicative of a news story associated with the currentmarket; and a local advertisement advertising a business or serviceprovided in the current market.
 17. The computer readable medium ofclaim 16, wherein the operations include: providing a local contentsummary indicative of differences between local content of the homemarket and local content of the current market.
 18. A mobile viewingserver in a multimedia delivery platform, the server comprising: aprocessor; and a computer readable medium, including programinstructions, executable by a processor, the instructions, when executedby the processor, causing the processor to perform operationscomprising: accessing location information indicative of a currentlocation of a mobile device associated with a home market; identifying acurrent market corresponding to the current location of the mobiledevice, wherein the current market differs from the home market; andgranting the mobile device access to a retransmission of a local channelof the current market.
 19. The mobile viewing server of claim 18,wherein granting the mobile device access is responsive to receiving arequest from a mobile viewing application of the mobile device.
 20. Themobile viewing server of claim 19, wherein the operations include:providing the mobile viewing application with channel information,including locality information indicative of whether a channel is alocal channel.